Yes the principal was an Islamist, yes Almontaser had not the qualifications or background to be a NYC public school principal but Almontaser is symptomatic of the problem. She is not the problem. An islamic public shcool is the problem. An inaccurative Arab narrative is the problem. Indoctrinating young American minds with propaganda is the problem. The problem is a NY public school madrassa. Want a window into the curriculum which the DOE refuses to share with the public and parents (even though it is scheduled to open in just 16 days - what's to hide?) Listen to my show last week with Pamela Hall of the Stop the Madrassa coalition here and go to STOP THE MADRASSA here;

[Below are excerpts - the original article is long, but we urge you to read it in entirety.]

“The misguided activist obviously thinks more of his own
unlearned opinion than he does of the oral traditions, scholarly
writings, and academic research of experts ranging from centuries ago
in the ancient world, to the present. The truth is that there is such a
constantly growing, extensive body of cultural, archaeological,
anthropological, and linguistic evidence of Western and Northern
African Muslim pre-Columbian American (and Caribbean) presence, that
those who study the evidence and continue to deny the obvious, reveal themselves to be rooted in old, racist, European renditions of American history.

It is one thing to read about towering figures in the ancient Muslim
world like Al-Idrisi, Al-Biruni, Al-Mas’udi and many, many others whose
contributions laid the foundations of the modern sciences of history,
geography, cartography, and sea navigation. It is another to actually
study their work. Both Idrisi and Mas’udi wrote of Muslim African
trans-Atlantic excursions to the Western world. Al-Idrisi did so around
956 C.E. Al-Mas’udi wrote in the 12th century. These accounts were
written centuries before Columbus’ voyages!”

…..

“These references and more all point to what the non-expert activist dismissed as “wish-fulfillment”. On
the contrary, ancient Arabic language maps, Native American tribes with
African names and words clearly embedded in their languages, statues,
diaries, artifacts, etc. destroy European imperialistic notions of
history rooted in White Supremacy. One such notion is that
African peoples’ history in America begins with slavery. ..These works
compliment references in the writings of Christopher Columbus, Balboa,
and other European explorers, to those very same Muslim African
explorers (specifically The Mandinka -the people of Kunta Kinte,
ancestor of Alex Haley, author of Roots, and The Autobiography of
Malcolm X) who were already present in the Carribean and North America,
before the bearers of the Cross arrived (e.g. Narrative of the Third Voyage, The Voyages of Christopher Columbus, Lionel Cecil Jane).

Include Boycott of The New York Post and Creation of Media Watchdog Group

Even though it was closed off to the news media, one reliable source I spoke to earlier today, who had attended the meeting, mentioned that some had infiltrated, one including, The New York Post. As I had mentioned in my earlier Arabisto piece, discussions involved a city-wide boycott of this newspaper as well as on how the situation had been managed by Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the New York Department of Education.

EVERYONE BUY THE POST They are fighting the great fight.

While many felt the focus of the meeting should be on the future success of the school, some felt it should be on defending Debbie Almontaser and others felt it should be on the implementation of a long-term boycott of The New York Post.

They ultimately decided on creating a media watchdog group that would analyze and critique the mainstream media’s coverage of Arab-American news. The other idea was to start a communications plan for a long-term boycott of the New York Post discussed in the aforementioned paragraph, which is already in place, according to one reliable source I spoke to tonight. Pressure, they think, will force not only The New York Post, but other similar media news media to make changes on how they report on the Arab-American community.

I suspect the Post's circulation to soar.

Danielle Salzberg, senior program officer at the nonprofit group New Visions for Public Schools, is the new Khalil Gibran International Academy interim principal who will substitute Debbie Almontaser.

In the latest desperate attempt to pull the wool over our eyes and get this NY public school madrassa opened and unstoppable, they've hired a "Jewish woman" as interim principal. I, for one, am unmoved.

What? They hire a Jew (and clearly it's a left wing upper West Side liberal - the worst) and they think we'll say "never mind." How insulting and wrong. As if.Considering the leftist/Islamic alliance, the liberal Jew would be the nest best thing to an Islamist. BTW, she doesn't even speak Arabic.

It is not about the principal. It is about a public school madrassa. In their feeble attemnpt to deflect scrutiny, they are making it all about Almontaser. It should not open, here's why.

New York
City's education department is turning to a Jewish woman who belongs to an
Upper West Side synagogue to lead an Arabic-language public school that critics
have portrayed as a terrorist-friendly "madrassa" in the making.

Khalil Gibran International Academy, which is scheduled to open to a few
dozen students for the first time next month, had its founding principal, Dhaba
"Debbie"
Almontaser, resign on Friday after a flap over her response to a T-shirt
promoting an "intifada," or uprising, in New York. Ms. Almontaser's replacement
will be Danielle Salzberg, who does not speak Arabic, but grew up in an Orthodox
Jewish household and belongs to a Manhattan synagogue, her father, Michael
Salzberg, told The New York Sun yesterday.

Ms. Salzberg will serve as Khalil
Gibran's acting principal while the city wages an aggressive search to find
a permanent replacement for Ms. Almontaser, who speaks fluent Arabic, and is a
practicing Muslim.

In a resignation letter sent to Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, Ms. Almontaser
said she was stepping down for the good of her school. "Unfortunately, a small
group of highly misguided individuals has launched a relentless attack on me
because of my religion," she wrote. "I have grown increasingly concerned that
these few outsiders will disrupt the community of learning when the Academy
opens its doors on September 4th."

[...]

The interim principal, Ms. Salzberg, seemed apprehensive when the Department
of Education asked her to run Khalil Gibran temporarily, said her father,
who said he spoke to her about the offer over the weekend. "It's a controversial
thing, it's public," Mr. Salzberg said. "I'm not sure that exposure is good for
anyone."

Her father? Why her father? She can't speak for herself? WTF?

But he said he is confident his daughter will deal well under pressure. For
one thing, positive comments about intifada are unlikely, he said. "I don't
think she'll get herself into that sort of bind," he said.

Mr. Salzberg added that his daughter's politics are far more liberal than
his, noting that he was not surprised to learn that she had signed a petition
written by the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance.

Danielle has had direct responsibility for supporting the Khalil Gibran planning team over the last six months.

In other words, Salzberg has had “direct responsibility”
for the KGIA’s flawed design that explicitly preferences Islam and
Muslim religion in the curricula, and Islamist and sharia ideologies in
the teacher “partners” for the school. And that she continues to have
that “direct responsibility.”

She has direct responsibility for appointing
Almontaser as principal, even while Almontaser serves on the Muslim
Consultancy Network with a host of extremist organization participants
including the unindicted co-conspirators in terrorism financing, ISNA
and CAIR, the second of which also awarded her efforts with a major
award.

Salzberg has direct responsibility as senior
program officer for choosing an entirely religious Advisory Board for a
public school, in apparent contempt of constitutional separation of
church and state. She has direct responsibility for selecting these three imams:

Salzberg has direct responsibility for appointing Imam Talib ‘Abdur-Rashid to
the board. He is also the Amir (leader) of the Harlem Shura, a
coalition of seven Harlem mosques. He has been the chairman of the
Justice Committee of the Majlis Ash-Shura (Islamic Leadership Council)
of New York, and Deputy Amir of The Muslim Alliance in North America.
In Early 2006 he was appointed Deputy Amir of the Majlis Ash Shura.

She could have found a secular Arabic speaker, Bahai Arabic speaker,
a Christian Arabic speaker or a Sephardic Jew. But she chose an
Islamist political activist committed to the imposition of sharia law.

Salzberg has direct responsibility for appointing Imam Shamsi Ali,
director of the Jamaica Muslim Center in Queens, where he started a
traditional Koranic Madrassa (yes, right word) several years ago where
students memorize the Koran, with only two hours of instruction for all
other subjects at the end of the day.

She could have found a Coptic Arabic-speaker, or a Maronite
Christian Arabic-speaker. But she chose an Islamic religious activist
who puts a low value on learning anything other than the Koran.
Salzberg has direct responsibility for appointing NYU Imam Khalid Latif,
who “convinced” the NYU administration to censor students who tried to
show the Muhammed cartoons (so much for being “inclusive,” “showing
diverse views,” or that pesky non-Koranic document again, the
Constitution and its First Amendment). A video describing his political organizing to block the cartoons is instructive. In his NYU Imam capacity, he cuts to the chase and simply states
that all Middle Eastern languages are “Islamic”: “Responsibilities of
the Islamic Chaplain at NYU …Organizes and instructs religious classes
in Islamic religion, ethics, and languages, i.e. Arabic, Urdu and
Farsi.” (page 8 of 29).

She could have found a secular Muslim Arabic-speaker, or even a
Muslim apostate (we have laws in this country to protect Muslim
apostates from being killed, fined or imprisoned - there must be one or
two in New York City). Instead, she chose an Islamic activist who
asserts that Arabic is an “Islamic” language, and who given a choice
between the Constitution and Free Speech - and the Koran - chose the
Koran.

Salzberg made sure that Columbia University’s
teacher training in fact teaches about one religion and one only -
Islam. Oh, there’s “Israeli Culture” and a general nod to Middle East
history, but she only recognizes the teaching of a single religion in
this ostensibly public school (page 8):

UPDATE: Meanwhile the Draft Bloomberg for President web site has a creepy donation
button with a human spine imposed over an American flag. Bloomberg, who
according to the Post article, "Mayor Bloomberg yesterday said it was best for
Almontaser to step down because "she was becoming an issue" but supported the
school." hat tip jeremayakovka

UPDATE: And Ed Lasky writes me of another New York Crimes whitewash alal the leftist/ Islamic alliance;

knew Almontaser shared office space with the group printing the Intifada T-Shirts but the NY Sun writes that she advises the group.
Certainly a bit different than the NYT version that did not mention that she shared office space with the group nor that she ADVISES the group.

Instead, the Times wrote she had "no direct connection" with the group.
Critics of the school have raised concerns that Ms. Almontaser's public commitment to peace might be a front for a violent agenda. A group of over 70 community members, including some parents and at least one city teacher, formed a group, the Stop the Madrassa Coalition, to investigate the school's possible ties to terrorist organizations. It was pictures of the "Intifada NYC" T-shirts posted on their website that led The New York Post to ask Ms. Almontaser her thoughts about the shirts, which were created by an Arab American art group that shares office space with an organization Ms. Almontaser advises.

SALZBERG, Department of Education

Ms. Salzberg, whose daddy said she attended Columbia Teachers College after
getting a bachelor's at New York University, could not be reached for comment
yesterday.

Unfortunately, a small group of highly misguided individuals has
launched a relentless attack on me because of my religion.They have
used my religion as the pretext to undermine the Academy and have taken
my words out of context to distort my record and portray me as
something that I am not. They have not succeeded, of course. The
Academy will open as scheduled. They confused me for the larger
movement in support of equity in education for all New Yorkers and they
underestimated the Mayor's commitment.

With your unwavering support in the face of these unprecedented
attacks, and the love of my family, they did not bother me. However,
their intolerant and hateful tone has come to frighten some of the
parents and incoming students. I have grown increasingly concerned that
these few outsiders will disrupt the community of learning when the
Academy opens its doors on September 4th.

Seperation of church and state ain't hate. It's AMERICA.

Therefore, I have decided to step aside to give the Academy and its
dedicated staff the full opportunity to flourish without these
unwarranted attacks.

The small group of fear mongers who used hate and prejudice to try
to derail the Academy are on the wrong side of history. New York is
bigger than that; America is fairer than that.

August 10, 2007 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - With the news of
Dhabah Almontaser's abrupt resignation today from Brooklyn's proposed Arab
school, the Khalil Gibran International Academy, still reverberating, members of
New York's educational community have increased their calls to permanently close
the ill-conceived institution.

Though Almontaser has resigned, KGIA's base of support in the radical Muslim
community, including its main partnering organization - the Arab American Family
Support Center [AAFSC] - remains, along with the school's fraudulent pedagogy of
Arab social activism, assuring a continuation of Almontaser's Islamist agenda,
even in her absence. [see Brooklyn's
Khalil Gibran Madrassah Will Function As Jihad Recruitment Center

Reached at his New York office to comment on the matter, City University of
New York Trustee Jeffrey S. Wiesenfeld said that Almontaser's resignation is,
"One step, let's hope Joel Klein come to his senses."

Wiesenfeld's opposition to the school is fundamental:
Read it all:

"There were a number of people, many of them very well meaning as
well as a number of organizations who felt that she had not acquitted herself
properly when she tried to obfuscate the meaning of Intifada. But that was not
the issue and that is not the issue. This only highlights the fact that any of
us who even considered allowing ourselves to get involved in this farce...now
know that we should not get involved at all with this concept."

Larger issues loom said Mr. Wiesenfeld, about which Almontaser's role is only
peripheral:

"It points to the larger issue, the disingenuousness, sadly of so
many Muslims who try to represent their cause in public...they would argue for
different definitions of Intifada, different definitions of jihad, much in the
same way that Arafat used to do. What we have to do as a society is we must
adopt the methodology of the absolute clearest thinker on this subject, and that
was the former Prime Minister of Australia, [John] Howard who said, and I'm
paraphrasing here, 'if you want to live among us and enjoy our values we welcome
you, if you want to live under Sharia in our country we invite you get out.'"

"If you want you have a madrassah, that's privately funded - I still think
unfortunately the FBI will still have to expend man hours to watch over it - but
it's a free country you can have a madrassah, you can have a yeshiva, if want
you can have a Catholic school, but not in the pubic education rubric."

Asked what the Department of Education should do at this point, Wiesenfeld
was clear,"The chancellor of the board of education of public schools should cut
his losses and get out of it, it's a losing proposition."

BLOOMBERG ANNOUNCES DABAH "DEBBIE" ALMONTASER" HAS RESIGNED, SEE BREAKING NEWS WABC RADIO : BLOOMBERG ANNOUNCED THE RESIGNATION DURING HIS DAILY RADIO REPORT. John Gambling on WABC, broke the story on his radio show.

BLOOMBERG WILL CONTINUE TO SEEK A NEW PRINCIPAL FOR THE ARAB SCHOOL. THE T-SHIRTS WERE THE BIG PROBLEM, HER REMARKS ABOUT THE T-SHIRTS WERE ILL ADVISED AND MEDIA WAS ALL OVER HER.

From the John Gambling show:

DIRECT QUOTES BY BLOOMBERG
: Debbie Almontaser WAS NOT VERY MEDIA SAVVY OVER HER COMMENTS ON THE T-SHIRTS. SHE WAS SOMEWHAT OVERWHELMED BY THE MEDIA. BLOOMBERG SAYS THEY ARE STILL LOOKING FOR A PRINCIPAL FOR THE SCHOOL.

Almontaser had come under fire for comments she made to the New York Post
about an "Intifada NYC" T-shirt that is sold by an activist group that shares an
office with the Yemeni-American association that Almontaser represents.

The day before she condemned the T-shirt message's connection to Palestinian
terrorism, Almontaser told the Post that "intifada" means "shaking off" and the
shirts represented women "shaking off" oppression.

The comments infuriated the city's United Federation of Teachers president,
Randi Weingarten, who called the message "war-mongering."

“That’s something that ought to be denounced, not be explained away,” she
told the paper.

Dhabah’s statement: “This morning I tendered my resignation to Chancellor Klein, which he accepted,” Ms. Almontaser said in a statement Thursday. “I became convinced yesterday that this week's headlines were endangering the viability of Khalil Gibran International Academy, even though I apologized. I have spent the last two years of my nearly 15 years with the Department working to create the unique educational opportunities that the school will offer. I will not allow the recent outcry to undermine these possibilities for the children of our city.”

Klein’s statement: School’s Chancellor Klein issued a statement saying: “I accept the resignation of Debbie Almontaser, founder of Khalil Gibran International Academy. Debbie brought to the work of creating the school strong dedication and a commitment to the success of all of New York City’s children. She reflected that commitment by stepping aside as the school’s leader when controversy about her remarks threatened to destabilize the school. I continue to believe that an Arabic dual language program, much like our other successful dual language programs, offers unique preparation for the global marketplace, and I remain committed to the success of Khalil Gibran International Academy.”

Relentless surrender from a dhimmi Jew.

AWAAM’s Statement: A release put out by the members of AWAAM tries to explain their particular usage of the word “intifada”: “‘Intifada NYC’ is a call for empowerment, service, civic participation and critical thinking in our communities: a ‘shaking off’ of discrimination and prejudice and an embracing of our roles as producers rather than simply objects of the mass media and public discourse.”

They cling to the jihad. They will not let go.

The statement went on to say that AWAAM members were “shocked to find themselves at the receiving end of attacks by anti-Arab bloggers and press who are using a T-shirt to try to aggravate hysteria against Arab and Muslim communities.” The group said that in addition to being incorrectly labeled a "Muslim group" and "pro-violence,” the organization “has sustained an illegal attack by hackers on its web site.”

August 8, 2007 -- Internships with Muslim lawyers, trips to the Middle East
and community activism are the hallmarks of the city's Arab-themed school
scheduled to open this fall.

The controversial Khalil Gibran International Academy's grant application for
private funds says the school wants to produce "agents of change" and
"ambassadors of peace" by focusing on the "complexity of Arab history and the
diversity of Arab culture."

Principal "Dhabah Debbie" Almontaser - who backtracked this week from
comments condoning the "Intifada NYC" T-shirts that are sold by activists with
ties to her - insists political dogma will not be on the curriculum.

All students, no matter their ethnicity, or religion, will be welcome, she
said.

Forty-four students have registered to begin the sixth grade and five
teachers have been hired.

Either she is a fool or she thinks New Yorkers are morons. Regardless, she has
no business running a public school.

Neither, she knows New Yorkers are not paying attention and want to be left alone.

Almontaser, as The Post's Chuck Bennett and Jana Winterreported yesterday,
sits on the board of an organization that shares office space with a group
called Arab Women Active in Art and Media, which has been selling T-shirts
proudly proclaiming "Intifada NYC."

What does that mean, exactly?

Is it meant to support the Palestinian intifada, which has killed thousands
of innocent people over the years?

Is it an incitement to such deadly violence here in New York City?

Neither, according to Almontaser.

"The word basically means 'shaking off,' " she tells The Post. "That is the
root word, if you look it up in Arabic."

And while she says that intifada "is developing a negative connotation"
because of its murderous anti-Israeli violence, Almontaser claims the shirts are
merely "an opportunity for girls to express that they are part of New York City
society . . . and shaking off oppression."

August 7, 2007 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - It is now clear why
the New York Department of Education has been dodging requests by concerned
citizens who have been trying to determine what type of institution the proposed
Khalil Gibran International Academy will be.

Charges leveled against KGIA by these writers - that it will in essence
function as a madrassah, a center for indoctrination not education - are proven
by the school's own executive summary [Access KGIA
Executive Summary Here], a document recently released under threat of a
lawsuit by the Stop The Madrassah
Coalition.

The summary is actually a manual for creating an Islamist vocational school,
one in which every activity is planned around creating social activists with an
Arab supremacist mindset, in the mold of KGIA's activist/principal Dhabah
Almontaser.

Despite the New York Dept. of Education Chancellor's assertions to the
contrary, KGIA will even bow to shari'a in its cafeteria, where halal food will
be served. This is a clear incursion of Islamic religious principles into the
public sector, a reason recently cited by Mr. Klein as justification for
shutting the institution down.

With a pedagogy wrapped around social activism, the student will be strongly
urged to get involved with the surrounding Arab community, within which a
radical Islamist sentiment figures prominently.

The executive summary is open about how KGIA will function as a prep school
for social activists, outlining a mythical day at the institution where the,
"goal is to share with the rest of the freshman class their own collaborative
experiences and reflect upon the lessons they've learned from them utilizing the
following quote."

"Genuine collaboration is a coming together of people to create
something that would have been impossible to make alone. A dialogue, a
communication, a connection that transforms the participants can occur. Deep
collaboration compels us to see ourselves through others. Truly collaborative
works are commitments in time and space, cause and effect at once, even a form
of love." - Tom Rollins - social activist [source page 16-17 executive
summary]

Actually the quote is from Tim not Tom Rollins [to whom Almontaser mistakenly
made the attribution] he is indeed a social activist, he is also a public school
teacher who operates a group call KOS [chaos] which preaches a radical, art
based anti-American message.

"Tim Rollins wrote a few years ago that he used the profession of
schoolteacher as a cover..." [source
http://shs.westport.k12.ct.us/jwb/Collab/KOS/Rollins.htm#background]

In that role Rollins' approach perfectly coincides with that of KGIA, which
is also cover, a front operation.

UPDATE: MARK writes, "Pamela, was looking back at what Hillary said about vouchers and religious education
(please see attached). If she feels so strongly about using public funds
for religious education, I wonder why she doesn't do anything about the
Khalil Gibran International Academy?"

UPDATED: My colleague in the Stop the Madrassa coaliton, Pamela Hall, will be on O'Reilly tonight at 8 pm Eastern. Short segment at approx 45 minutes in. BTW, Islamist Almontaser is retracting her defense on the Intifada T-shirt.

(CNSNews.com) - New York City officials have not been open or candid, critics say, about a controversial public school set to open in Brooklyn next month that will teach Arab language and culture -- the Khalil Gibran International Academy.

A local group, Stop the Madrassa Community Coalition, fears the school will become a Muslim-oriented school that promotes a religious and political agenda to its incoming sixth-grade class.

Administrators have claimed otherwise, but the coalition has received few details about the school's curriculum, faculty, textbooks and students, so its questions are still unanswered.

The suspicions are fueled by comments made by the school's incoming principal, Debbie Almontaser, as well as by some of her allegedly radical Islamist associations.

She has said, for instance, that U.S. foreign policy is "racist" and that the U.S. "triggered" terrorism by not being a fair mediator in the Middle East.

Further, the advisory board for the school includes three imams (Islamic leaders), as well as Christian and Jewish clergy.

"What's to hide? We know what we see," said Pamela Hall, a New York resident and a spokeswoman for the Stop the Madrassa Community Coalition. (A madrassa is a Muslim school). "We see a religious advisory board and a principal with a track record in radical Islam," Hall said.

Dhabah Almontaser, the principal of KGIA is an Islamist who is painfully unqualified for head of school. How did she get the plum job of Principal? Her experience is limited to teaching and "activism." A former Principal called the Malzberg show explaining that Almontaser was assigned to his school to conduct her sensitivity classes after 9/11. He found her comments during teacher training to be political. He asked her what her professional experience was. The answer....2 yrs as an elementary school teacher. He read about KGIA and was surprised that with such little teaching experience, then political activism following, she is now a Principal.

July 30, 2007 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - A five minute video
[Access
Video Here] just released casts grave doubt as to the suitability of Dhabah
Almontaser to serve as the principal at the embattled Khalil Gibran
International Academy, a proposed Arab-centric public school scheduled to open
in September.

The charges directed against Almontaser go to the heart of the debate over
the school, which has parents, national security researchers, Middle East
experts and advocates of church-state separation uniting in their opposition to
the school's opening in Brooklyn.

Almontaser has served in the New York's Department of Education since 911
doing what is essentially dawa work, wearing a hijab so she can act as a "role
model for young women throughout the city"- seemingly a clear case of the type
of religious proselytizing which is expressly denied in the First Amendment's
"establishment clause" - while denying in classroom settings that the September
11 attackers were either Muslim or Arab.

"I don't recognize the people who committed the attacks as either
Arabs or Muslims." - Dhabah Almontaser [source ]

Almontaser's public school work mandate to spread what is clearly Islamist
revisionism has been granted by New York's multicultural educrats because of the
undocumented canard - loudly spread by faux Muslim civil rights groups - that
there has been huge increase in anti-Muslim hostility since the September
attacks.

The proposal to create a public school pushing an Arabist agenda and carrying
out much of its instruction in Arabic highlights the absurdity of rewarding a
noisy minority group well versed in using the system against itself, in this
case to cravenly recycle the 911 attacks, using them once again against the
society which has already been forced to endure them.

This is a calculated logic of rejecting assimilation while imposing elements
of Sharia incrementally. It is dialectic in which every instance of Islamic
terror can then be used to assert charges of Islamophobia.

In a July 30 article published in USA Today dealing with the encroachment of
Sharia - Islamic law - into the public school system, Dr. Daniel Pipes, the
director of the Middle East Forum stated:

"The goal of Islamists is the application of Islamic
law."

Agreeing with Pipes in this piece was Richard Thompson, president of the
Thomas More Law Center who said:

"What (school officials) are doing...is to give Muslim students
religious benefits that they do not give any other religion right now." [source ]

The degree to which the Islamists are willing to bend reality in furtherance
of their goals is demonstrated by Almontaser who has not only denied that the
911 attackers - 15 of whom were Saudis - were either Muslim or Arab, but has
asserted that the United States was itself responsible for the September 11
attacks.

We immediately call on NYC Education Chancellor Joel Klein to immediately remove Dhabah Almontaser as principal of KGIA. Her extremist views and deeply troubling associations make her unfit for such a position of leadership.

The Brooklyn Daily Eagle covered the response to Stop The Madrassa’s demands for curricula that came
from Chancellor Klein’s office yesterday. Klein’s spokesperson blatantly evaded
all the key questions about the curricula that are at the heart of the concerns
about this school. We’ll analyze why below, but first an excerpt or two from the
Eagle article: More here.

Unless we counteract the influence of Saudi money on the education of the young, we’re going to find it very difficult to win the war on terror. I only wish I was referring to Saudi-funded madrassas in Pakistan. Unfortunately, I’m talking about K-12 education in the United States. Believe it or not, the Saudis have figured out how to make an end-run around America’s K-12 curriculum safeguards, thereby gaining control over much of what children in the United States learn about the Middle East. While we’ve had only limited success paring back education for Islamist fundamentalism abroad, the Saudis have taken a surprising degree of control over America’s Middle-East studies curriculum at home.

Yes, those t-shirts for young girls say “Intifada NYC.” These were sold at the Arab Faire in Prospect Park on July 8.

Is this the kind of “middle eastern cultural enrichment” that Dhabah Almontaser, principal for Khalil Gibran International Academy, will bring to her students and teachers? Since Chancellor Klein’s office has approved her curricula, we assume he and Mr. Harries endorse these t-shirts. Mayor Bloomberg can purchase some for his next campaign. Read it all.

A San Diego school that set up a “madrassa” for Somali Muslim students,
allowing prayer time during class hours and segregating males from females, has
been forced to knock it off after a large public outcry: School
Stops Scheduling Class Time For Muslim Prayer.

SAN DIEGO — A San Diego school that drew international attention for setting
aside time for Muslim students to pray in the classroom will no longer do so, it
was reported Friday.

Instead, Carver Elementary’s schedule will be reconfigured so students can
say their required midday prayers during lunch. Courts have long upheld
students’ rights to pray on their own during lunch or recess, The San Diego
Union-Tribune reported. When the new school year begins, Carver will have two
lunch periods, including one that will fall when Muslims typically say their
midday prayer — between 1 and 2 p.m., the newspaper reported.

UPDATE: THE STOP THE MADRASSA COMMUNITY COALITION WILL BE ON HANNITY TONIGHT. MUST SEE TV! 9pm Eastern

The Stop The Madrassa Community Coalition now has a phone number for the group. This is already on the contact info page and press release pdf at the stopthemadrassa.wordpress.com blog. Fight the madrassa, the country you save will be your won. NO taxpayer funded public Arabic schools. The implications are staggering. Here is the information for all the Atlasites that asked (and for those that didn't :)

Excerpt from our July 23 letter to
Governor Eliot Spitzer, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the New York State
Board of Regents, Dr. Richard P. Mills (New York State Education
Commissioner), Chancellor Joel Klein, Garth Harries (Office of New
Schools), and Records Access Officers:

Re: Khalil Gibran International Academy (”KGIA”); FOIL Requests

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen:

The undersigned represent a coalition of concerned parents and
residents of New York City and the State of New York. Our client-group
consists of concerned New Yorkers and because time is a critical factor
we are writing this letter directly to you prior to taking any further
administrative or legal actions. In addition to this letter’s obvious
effort to elicit a serious and substantive response, it is also meant
to operate as a formal FOIL request to the appropriate Records Access
Officers of all of the relevant City of New York Department of
Education and New York State Education Department agencies and
subdivisions.

The background for this correspondence is straightforward, yet quite disconcerting….

"If we hope to defeat the Islamists' in the war of ideas they are waging against
us, we had better deny them a beachhead in Brooklyn — and a precedent and model
for publicly funded madrassas across America."

Frank Gaffney has a column over at The Washington Times on the proprosed public Arabic school in NY, Khalil Gibran International Academy. Read it all. The repercussions of such a tax payer funded school is incalcuable.

It is generally accepted that the conflict we are in is as much a war of
ideas as a military one. Sadly, the United States has largely failed to wage
this ideological struggle against adversaries who both understand its vital
importance to the outcome and who often, like most ideologues, are very skilled
in its ways.

This is bad enough overseas, where adherents to one strain or another of the
ideology best described as Islamofascism use various organizations, media and
educational institutions to recruit and indoctrinate young people. The failure
to recognize the danger such activities represent, let alone to counter them
effectively, is among the most serious shortfalls in the Free World's response
to our Islamist enemies.

Even more alarming is accumulating evidence we are also failing to appreciate
the inroads being made by those promoting a similar agenda on this war's
homefront — here in the United States. In fact, Islamists have been assiduously
waging the war of ideas for decades, in American mosques and prisons, on
military bases and college campuses across the country and, increasingly, in the
public square.The infrastructure that has made possible such ideological
inroads has largely been built by various Saudi institutions, charities, princes
and businesses. The Islamofascists' success in these areas owes as much to our
indifference, political correctness and cognitive dissonance as to their
zeal.

A case in point is a new school that New York City seeks to initiate this
autumn with public funding. The so-called Khalil Gibran International Academy
(KGIA) will start small — a single sixth-grade class lodged temporarily inside
an existing public school in Brooklyn. According to Garth Harries, an official
in the city's Department of Education, the KGIA's purpose will be to "offer a
challenging multicultural curriculum ... [that] integrates intensive Arabic
language instruction and the study of Middle Eastern history and historical
figures to enliven learning across all subject areas."

There are a number of grounds for concern that what is billed as
"multiculturalism" will actually be Islamist indoctrination — at taxpayer
expense:

• For starters, the curriculum for classes supposed to start in little more
than a month has not been made available to parents of prospective students or
concerned citizens. Even assuming the best of intentions on the part of New York
educators — notably, Public Schools Chancellor Joel Kline has promised to "shut
[the school] down" if it assumes a religious, political or national character
inconsistent with a public school — it is a serious error to rush into an
educational experiment fraught with peril without the closest scrutiny by
parents and independent experts.

That is especially so since the KGIA's principal-designate, Dabah (a k a
"Debbie") Almontaser told a reporter in May: "What will be different [is that]
we will be able to infuse historical information into math and science and
literature.... With any foreign language you engage in, you need to learn the
history, culture and customs of the people in order to navigate the language
effectively and not offend anyone."

• If such a curriculum sounds like a vehicle for injecting the Islamists'
slanted view of Middle East history and promoting the culture of victimhood that
is a staple of much of their proselytizing and indoctrination, it probably is,
given Ms. Almontaser's views and associations. In January 2002, she told an
interviewer: "The American people believe that everything is all right and that
the U.S.A. lives by its ideals of democracy, individual freedom and the American
dream out there as well. So did I, until September 11, 2001.... Earlier you
could be arrested for being black and driving a car, now it has become a crime
to fly when you are brown. I believe a lot of Arab-Americans have realized that
we are in the same boat as the black Americans; we must learn from their
experiences and struggle against racism. I have realized that our foreign policy
is racist; in the 'war against terror' people of color are the target."

1) KGIA principal designate Debbie aka Dhabah Almontaser is a documented Islamist who does da’wa (Islamist proseltysing) in the guise of a “multicultural educator”. She was honored for her infiltration of the NY educational system at a Muslim Unity event organized by the Islamic Internet University/ Study Islam.com where she shared the stage with 65 of the most radical Islamist leaders in North America. The opening of KGIA will be hailed as a victory for da’wa in the the United States (Note that the pages on the internet about the Muslim Unity event appear to have been recently removed.) Militant Monitor

2) Almontaser uses her position as a “multicultural educator” and classroom teacher in the NYC DOE to indoctrinate students. In 2002 she told a 6th grade class that “"I don't recognize the people who committed the attacks as either Arabs or Muslims," … "Those people who did it have stolen my identity as an Arab and have stolen my religion." Almontaser wrote an article lauding the attacks as a “teachable moment” and manipulated her students into thinking that”it was not a proven fact” that “those who are involved in the attacks are terrorists who may be of Arab descent” and manipulated them to conclude that “We have reason to believe that those who are involved in the attacks are terrorists”. More here.

3) Dhabah Almontaser will promote Islamic fundamentalism and will hinder intergration which is supposed to be the aim of public school education. She wrote that she wears her traditional Islamic garb because she sees herself as “a role model for girls across the city” and that she “would rather die then take off my hijab”. She also boasts that her daughter has worn a head covering since age 9. More at Militant monitor.

4) The main partnering organization for KGIA is the Arab American Family Support Center [AAFSC] is headed by Saudi educated Lena Al Husseini, who has ties to radical Islamists. She was pictured at a conference together with Sayyid Syeed the former head of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA has been named asa an unindicted co conspirator in a Hamas funding case and the biggest Wahhabist da’wa groups in North America) and Johari Abdul-Malik the outreach director of Dar Al Hijrah mosque who raised money for the defense of two convicted terrorists –Ali Al Tamimi and Omar Abu Ali. One of the links on the AAFSC website is to the Counci for Islamic Education (CIE) which offers aa curriculum titled “Hirabah not Jihad." More here at Militant Monitor.

4) Several AAFSC board members are active in the American Arab Anti Discrimination Committee [ADC] a group funded by Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal who has supported the families of suicide bombers and whose donation to a 9/11 victim fund was rejected by then Mayor Giuliani after he blamed the attacks on US policy in the Middle East. John Abi Habib the CEO of MCI Net software company (which has contracts with the DOE) has attended events honoring the Saudi billionaire together with his brother Roger MCI is listed as a KGIA partner. Abi Habib also heads the Salaam Club antoiher KGIA affiliate.

5) Twelve members of the KGIA advisory board are clerics – an hitherto unprecedented religious affiliation for a public school. Their involvement raises issues about separation of church and state. DOE Chancellor Joel Klein and spokespeople have said they will close KGIA if it becomes a “religious” or “political” school. Pipeline News

6) Three of the Islamic clerics on the KGIA advisory board are documented supporters of jihad and Islamisation. Arab Christian cleric Khader Al Yateem was the subject of a demand for the removal of his segment on a PBS documentary about Arabs in America due which ADL head Abe Foxman cited as a virulently anti Israel diabtribe . Ironically the head of the ADL’s office in NY Joel Levy has written a letter in support of KGIA and Almontaser. Arab groups have attacked the ADL’s support for the school as “Zionist” interference. More at Pipeline News.

KGIA advisory board member Imam Shamsi Ali runs a madrassah in Queens which is in possible violence of DOE truancy laws since school age students spend all day memorizing the Koran and have no secular curriculum. New York Times

Imam Abdul Latif the Imam at NYU threatened the university with violence during the Danish cartoon controversy.Militant Monitor

7) There is overwhelming evidence that KGIA is promoting both a political and religious agenda. Joel Klein is obligated to keep his word to shut down KGIA for this reason. A precedent for this was set in 2005 he removed Columbia professor Rashid Khalidi from a position in a DOE teacher training program on the Middle East within hours of a NY Sun piece which reported that;.Campus Watch

“A Columbia University professor who has called Israel a "racist" state with an "apartheid system," and who has supported attacks by Palestinian-Arabs on Israelis, is scheduled to lecture a group of New York City public school teachers on how to teach Mideast politics to schoolchildren.”…” The course on The Middle East will be about that region's cultural patterns and complex history”… "It will be given in conjunction with and under the sponsorship of The Middle East Institute of Columbia University." New York Sun

Why is Dhabah Almontaser (who also works with Khalidi and the Columbia University Middle East Institute he heads and has helped write a curriculum for teachers with the MEI and is also on the board of groups tied to Hamas and Al Qaeda not being deemed unfit for a position in the public school system on the same grounds as her colleague Khalidi?

8) Dhabah Almontaser is on the board of the Muslim Consultative Network headed by Adem Carroll who spokesman and relief program coordinator for ICNA in New York. ICNA has direct ties to Al Qaeda and Jamaat Al Islamiya. The former head of ICNA Queens was Asharafuzzman Khan a death squad leader who was accused of shooting 8 teachers to death in Dhaka in 1971. Almontaser appeared on the podium with Khan at a Muslim Unity Rally held in Madison Square Garden by the Islamic Internet University in 2003. Another MCN member is KGIA board member Imam Al Hajj Talib Abdur Rashid. He is the chairman of the Justice Committee of the Majlis Ash-Shura (Islamic Leadership Council) of New York.

The Majlis Ash Shura councils draws up rules governing every aspect of the life of a Muslim according to Islamic law. A description of what the Majlis Ash Shura Council does can be found on the official Saudi website whcich says “Governance shall be based on “Shura (consultation), and equity in accordance with Islamic Shari’ah). Wikipedia also has a definition.

When questioned if her agenda for KGIA included shar’ia .Almontaser prevaricated with the claim “I don’t know what shari’a is”. Given that KGIA advisory board member Al Haj Talib Abdur Rashid is on the Majlis Ash Shura council of New York( and the MCN board of which Almontaser is also a member) the influence of Islamic law on KGIA is a given. The list of members of MCN is also extremely troubling and the presence of the Majlis Ash Shura of New York shows it has a strong religious component.

The Council of American Islamic Relations, New York chapter of the pre-eminent Muslim civil liberties advocacy organization; Muslims Women’s Institute for Research and Development, active in interfaith and member of Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (VOAD); Islamic Circle of North America, active in providing local social services, 9/11 response and disaster relief and member of VOAD; the Social Justice Committee of the Islamic Leadership Council, or Majlis Ash Shura, the largest network of local imams, as well as a range of active and well-connected community advocates, educators, student leaders and lawyers. www.mcnny.org

9 )KGIA principal designate Dhabah Almontaser is on the board of the Dialogue Project together with Linda Sarsour who heads the Arab American Association of New York (AAANY) .

Many of the partnering organizations of of AAANY are involved with KGIA as well.

In 2005 Almontaser and Sarsour organized the Arab Heritage Festival week together. Sarsour has a brother –in law, cousin, and “family friend” who are serving lengthy prison terms in Israel for Hamas activities. Her husband (identified in an article as Maher Judt) was facing deportation in 2004 after having lived for 7 years in the United States, possibly for reasons related to his Hamas member brother. Militant Monitor

10) It has irrefutably documented that the Khalil Gibran International Academy and Dhabah Almontaser will be a religious and politically oriented school i.e. a publicly funded madrassa. The partnering institutions and individuals are all known to be promoting an anti Western and anti democratic agenda which negates everything the public school system is supposed to promote. The KGIA runs counter to the public interest and also poses a security threat. Chancellor Joel Klein of the DOE and Mayor Bloomberg should be held to account and the public should demand the KGIA opening be cancelled.

Under Mr. Bloomberg, the Department of Education has established two public
schools — one Greek and one Arabic — that challenge the divide between church
and state. For the past five years, the Bronx Household of Faith, has conducted
Sunday morning services out of Public School 291, but now has been banned from
doing so. A co-leader of the inner city congregational church, Robert
Hall, has vowed to appeal the ruling. In an interview with the New York
Daily News, Hall pointed to the Khalil Gibran International Academy as an
example of how the DOE is inconsistent in its rulings on who may use its space.
He said his church was being singled out and added, "You cannot separate Arabic
culture from Islam. Here we are in the fall, ready to have a publicly-funded
religious school." An education department spokeswoman denied this, but Mr. Hall
promised to pursue the matter through the courts. More here at the NY Sun.

The infiltration and c0-opting of America's educational institutions tend to have the nefarious. This is no different. The backgrounds of those behind the NY Arabic public school get uglier and uglier.

July 17, 2007 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - In previous articles
the writers have documented why Dhabah aka "Debbie" Almontaser, the Yemeni born
principal designate of the Khalil Gibran International Academy, does not belong
in the public school system.

Almontaser has a close working relationship with Linda Sarsour, a radical
Islamist activist with a power base in Brooklyn's Bay Ridge district. Sarsour is
the director of the Arab American Association of New York, a provider of social
services including immigration assistance and legal aid to Arab community. She
along with Almontaser are board member of the AAA's Dialogue Project and Sarsour
is the Co-Chair of the Dialogue Project's Interfaith Events program.

Sarsour's association with Almontaser provides an alarming insight into the
forces that will drive KGIA if the school becomes a reality in September.

This relationship poses a serious challenge to those who blindly maintain
that KGIA is just another New York City charter school, because Linda Sarsour is
tied to the terrorist organization Hamas as well as other radical causes.Deepening the concern, the community from which Sarsour operates shares her
views as well as her support for Islamism.

In a 2004 piece by Sarmad S. Ali, "Kerry Drew Disenchanted Arabs in Bay
Ridge" published in the Columbia Journalism Review, Linda Sarsour
matter-of-factly documents her family's ties to Hamas as depicted in the Arab
language terrorist newspaper that she is reading while being interviewed: Read the whole thing here.

[...]

In 2005 Almontaser co-founded the Yemeni American Association [YAA] and imam
Hisham from the Al Farooq mosque presided at the organization's opening.
Almontaser's husband, Sa'ad Almontaser, serves as the vice president of the YAA.

In 2006 Shahawar Matin Siraj a Bay Ridge resident, was convicted and
sentenced to a minimum of 30 years in a plot to bomb the Herald Square subway
station in Manhattan.

The case was largely built on evidence gathered by Arabic speaking
informants.

When New York Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly met with local Muslims to
hear their "concerns about issues of public safety," as the New York Times
reported, "Only after several questions did anyone mention the trial. Debbie
Almontaser, a board member of a Muslim women's organization, told Mr. Kelly that
she was saddened that the police had resorted to "F.B.I. tactics," and that she
thought this was polarizing the Muslim community. Applause swept the room."
[source NY Times]

A majority of Bay Ridges' Muslims believe that 9/11 was staged by the U.S.
government.

"At the trial of subway bomber Matin Siraj his defense lawyers
said their client's belief that 9/11 was staged by the United States was the
common view held by the majority of Muslims in . April 2007 Siraj's defense
maintained that his views that the United States government was involved in the
9-11 attacks were "community-based notions" held among many muslims."

"In fact, in that entire Muslim community...the thought that the American
government was responsible for bringing down the towers on 9-11 was common,"
said one of Siraj's attorneys, Martin Stolar. [source
http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/29/21/29_21guilty.html]

In a disturbing piece ["Zionist Organization Supports Gibran School
Principal, ADL Support Could Affect School's Success!"] published in Aramica, an
Arab newspaper headquartered in Bay Ridge, publisher Antoine Faisal essentially
charges Dhabah Almontaser with collaborating with the "enemy."

"What could she [Almontaser] possibly have done to anger members
of her own community? How about betray them by working with a Zionist
organization?" [source http://www.viewda.com/webpaper/aramica]

That enemy, the "Zionists" here, takes the form of the Jewish organization,
the Anti Defamation League which Faisal equates with the Ku Klux Klan.

The letter from Joel Klein Chancellor, NY Department of Education - open this file to read the whole disgusting submission to Islam. (click below the fold for pges 2&3)Download Hale_Community_Letter_061907.pdf

An Atlas operative attended the MS447 PTA meeting which was held to update parents on the Khalil Gibran International Academy, the NY Arabic public school madrassa situation. Half the classes at the school will be taught in Arabic. Arabic is more than a
language. It is explicated the language of Islam so in that sense it is
part of the Islamic religious imperial project. Radical Islam advances through
the Arabic language.

About 25 parents showed up. No media.

Garth Harries, Jerry Taylor-Brown (a woman in his office), Bill DeBlasio, and Sam Colen (not sure of last name or who he is) attended from the Department of Education.

Tom Dolan (P.T.A. President) summarized the agreement.

The parent's concerns last night were:

1. Would all students have lockers as promised?

2. Dance Studio

3. Overcrowding in cafeteria, and because there are so many students, some are eating late and are hungry.

4.Last year there was a fire in the building. High School students exited first, leaving Middle School students waiting in the building. How would they manage in the future with more students?

5. Would the D.O.E. keep promises since they haven't in the past. Would they put everything in writing?

6. Concern about sharing Science Labs with KGIA.

7. What will be KGIA start and end time?

Atlas operative (AO) waited for a parent to bring up serious concerns. This almost did not happen. Finally a concerned woman raised her hand and said;

".....everyone remembers when Dhabah Almontasser read an e-mail from an Iraqi GI praising her and how wonderful this Arabic School is." (everyone nodded yes and smiled).

She had read an article that explained how this GI was found to be a fraud. He wasn't on his base in Colorado as he said. He was in the Bronx. He immediately disconnected his phone. This really surprised me. It scared me actually. After all, why would Dhabah Almontasser do this? What else could they be doing? She did some research and googled her.

Did you know she [Almontasser] recently received an award from the Council on American Islamic Relations and they are an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Hamas terrorism case?"

Garth Harries became apoplectic. His eyes narrowed and he stared so hard at that woman so hard you could feel his anger.

She continued that just read about a school in San Diego that tried this same experiment with an Arabic Cultural School and now they have Sharia law. Boys and girls are separated, there is Muslim prayer during classes, and Halal food in the cafeteria.

Her concern was that they kept saying that there will be accountability and the school will be monitored, but who in the D.O.E. speaks Arabic and how will they have someone sitting in the classrooms to hear what they are teaching? She could not see how that's possible. And also, she asked "where are the textbooks? Don't you all think we should see them?"

She wanted too get copies of all the textbooks used. Smart woman.

She thanked the P.T.A. for all of their hard work.

She thanked them for begging for new equipment and improvements and asked if anyone knew that after two years KGIA is "moving into brand new state-of the-art building while they were left in here."

Harries glossed over every point she brought up and never answered a question or concern.

Someone raised their hand (Harries knew she was on his side) and said, "We definitely need police security because there are people who don't like Arabs".

Another questioned was asked about lockers and Harries ended the meeting.

A gentleman then asked to make a comment. He said that the whole affair was handled poorly and that he was distressed at Mayor Bloomberg's comment in the New York Times early on in the discussions. He didn't appreciate Bloomberg saying that he did not care what the parents wanted and the school would open. He hoped that in the future the parents would be consulted.

I caught an exchange between the female questioner and Harries. He accused her of being confrontational. He was beyond furious that someone would go along with the plan. The parents looked like lambs being led to the slaughter; happy, until right before they realize what's up.

Another woman asked if the D.O.E. would allow her a variance at this late date so she can place her son in another school.

The problem with that is, they will probably offer schools she doesn't want in order to discourage students from leaving.

Another parent was concerned that the school would lose funding because of an enrollment drop. Harries promised they would not do this. Schools are given a certain amount of dollars per student. It is highly irregular to fund students who don't exist.

Harries said enrollment for KGIA is at 100 students and they had to stop taking applications. I don't believe this.

There are so many dangers involved. One crucial issue is the indoctrination.

The other issue is that Dhabah Almontasser and associates will be privy to everything that occurs in the Department of Education, especially concerning School Safety. If they know the procedures they have inside knowledge they can use to infiltrate the system. This is a huge issue. Thousands of students could be placed at risk.

The third issue is they will be given enormous amounts of dollars to fund their agenda, which is indoctrination, not education.

There are illegal immigrant students in the educational system already.

I know of an incident in Edward R. Murrow where I.C.E was called in. KGIA will not report an illegal immigrant. They will harbor them. T because the paperwork and documents didn't match. KGIA will get these kids proper documentation.

This is a very scary situation. Every local politician I've spoken to refuses to go near this. Some of them fawn over Almontasser.

More importantly -- this sets a dangerous precedent. Our taxpayer dollars being used to build these houses of hate.

-- As resistance in Brooklyn to a public school focused on Arabic language and
culture persists, a U.S. soldier has emerged as its unlikely champion.

Army Sgt. Patrick Kowalchuk, 28, who has completed two tours in Iraq,
intended only to support Khalil Gibran International Academy's principal when he
wrote her an e-mail early this month.

But it soon evolved into a public-relations tool.

"American society desperately needs this bridge to Arabic language and
culture, and I am glad there are visionary and courageous people like yourself
who are laying down the framework," Kowalchuk wrote to the principal, Debbie
Almontaser.

Almontaser recently read the e-mail, with Kowlachuk's permission, at a
meeting of 100 parents of kids at Brooklyn HS of the Arts and Math and Science
Exploratory School.

Kowalchuk told The Post parents must embrace the academy.

"If it were given a chance to prove itself, it could," he said by phone from
Fort Carson, Colo., where he teaches Arabic to soldiers in his unit.

Kowalchuk's appearance at this point in the KGIA controversy appears to be
nothing more than a desperate ploy by Ms. Almontaser, who is seeking to create a
patriotic symbol to rescue her school which has already been rejected by PS 282
and is encountering similar resistance at Boerum Hill where Joel Klein's
Department of Education is trying to cram the institution down the throats of
protesting students, parents and faculty members.

Finding it intriguing - to say the least - that a U.S. serviceman would be
involved with Almontaser, whose record of anti-war activism and public
statements reveal her to be a radical Islamist, PipeLineNews contacted him
Tuesday morning, asking for a comment.

He stated that he couldn't talk at the moment because he was "at work" but
would speak to us "in his off hours" and gave us a cell contact number and a
time to call back this afternoon.

When the return call was made - at the time he suggested - we found he had
provided a cell number which wasn't his, but belonged to someone in New York, a
male with a heavy accent. In a follow-up call to Fort Carson, one of Kowalchuk's
associates informed us that the Sergeant was now refusing to talk to us, period.

Kowalchuk's amateurish game playing and deceit should place him in good stead
if and when he decides to teach at KGIA. It is also illustrative of the larger
duplicity manifest in Almontaser's developing PR strategy.

This strategy shift came about because New York's DOE, Ms. Almontaser and all
of those involved with lobbying for KGIA are denying the implicit religious and
political nature of the institution and as a result are now trying to do an end
run around the issue, seeking out friendly journalists to shill for the school
while Almontaser, Joel Klein and others sit back and calculate the effect.

Read it all. These people will stop at nothing to set the precedent and establish Arabic schools in our public school system. This Arabic school MUST BE STOPPED. As Mark Steyn so succinctly put it:

" it shows how we mischaracterized, we willfully misunderstand
Islam. Yes, on the face of it yes Arabic is a language in a sense there
is would be no difference between opening a foreign language school - a Spanish
language school or a french language school - but in fact Arabic is more than a
language. It is explicated the language of Islam so in that sense it is
part of the Islamic religious imperial project. Radical Islam advances through
the Arabic language. And you go all kinds of places that aren't in the
Arab world now like Pakistan, Indonesia, Central Asia, the Balk ins, the
Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Canada and the United States and you will
here those Imams preaching in Arabic. Arabic is not just another
language like French or Italian, it is the spearhead of an idea logical project
that is deeply opposed to the United States.

It’s pretty incoherent I think, but he definitely has literary aspirations. Here’s his poetry…if it’s the same fellow

I wonder if this is the same Kowalchuk (and if he is the school’s same kowalchuk?) here – “A poet’s gathering against the war” – but in 1999 (Serbia/Bosnian war….) (another link to same email on the “war resistors league” here ). And another here

Also you’re probably aware of this, but Debbie Almontaser’s son is in the army – wonder if he knows Kowalchuk – and that curricula is to be spread through all the schools in NY, not just the madrassah – or so she writes here